I play the older version on occasion. I feel like it is too slow against a lot of the aggro decks out there, and it is difficult to pull the OTK on decks that use reno. It is not the monster it used to be. There are just lots of decks that either have too much lifegain, or are too fast for it to pull off. Priest (reno), other mages (reno/aggro), warrior (pirate/control), shaman (token/deathrattle), and paladin (aggro/mid range) are all difficult matchups for the older version.

This is not even close to true. Priest, midrange pally and control shaman are all super freeze mage favored. The heal is completely irrelevant when you're bursting from 30 and none of them can pressure reliably to prevent you from assembling it the vast majority of the time.

Pirate warrior is at worst a 50/50. In my experience, people play the matchup exceptionally poorly. In 4 seasons of mostly freeze mage, I have yet to drop below 50% in that matchup over hundreds of games.

Can't comment on token shaman or aggro pally as I haven't played the matchups enough.

Ice block decks and control warrior will of course always dump on freeze mage, but neither holds a significant enough portion of the meta right now for it to really matter I think. The danger is mostly in getting counter queued.

Either one works. I've been switching back and forth between them depending on if I want to more consistently otk slow decks or survive the aggro decks. I suspect with the success of aggro in the wild tournament, you'll want the valet version for a while.

Yes but I wouldn't put it in the top ten due to the fact that it can be a might inconsistent and when aggro decks high roll they win on turn 5 or so. Additionally things like mill rogue and jade decks (such as jadezoth rogue) represent a real threat to the winrate with either tech counter cards being ineffectual or nonexistent

Aggro shaman and aggro pirate warrior are tier one in standard and reno mage isn't for a reason. The mere existence of hard counters to a strategy validates it not being considered best of the best. Name a hard counter to pirate warrior.

Reno mage isn't tier 1 in standard because there's way more dragon priest and jade decks in standard, not because it has bad matchups against aggro. I'd also argue it gains way more in the transition to wild than any of these decks, making its bad matchups much less polarizing.

You can make a hard counter to anything. It just doesn't matter when you lose to the rest of the meta.

Hey everyone, we’re putting the tier list on hold for a bit until the new meta settles after the upcoming changes to small-time buccaneer and spirit claw. Instead, we’re bringing back weekly deck discussions starting with Freeze Mage! This seemed particular appropriate considering the announcement that ice lance will be moved into the hall of fame set and rotated to wild with the upcoming Year of the Mammoth, which, pending any new burn spells released in the next expansion, will make Freeze Mage practically a wild only deck.

For those unfamiliar with the deck, Freeze Mage is a combo deck that aims to stall the game out to turn 9+ with strong removal, aoe freeze effects and Ice Block and proceed to kill the opponent with Alex followed up by burn or a full OTK with Evolved Kobold.

A common belief I see around reddit and other hearthstone forums is that freeze mage isn’t viable in wild since wild is pretty much the same as standard now, except aggro is even stronger with additions like crackle and ship’s cannon. While it’s true that aggro is very strong in wild, the current meta (at least at high ranks) is heavily tilted towards renolock, which is exactly what freeze mage preys on. The addition of mad scientist to the list also makes a huge difference in the aggro matchups, allowing you to contest the early board and not have to play secrets from hand so you can focus on removal/draw/freezing instead. I’ve personally played mostly freeze to legend for the last 2 seasons, hitting rank 3 this season.

Some notes on stats: My winrate was a bit higher before I hit legend this season (63%), but there’s a lot more people counter queuing and teching kezan/eater in legend when they face the same people over and over. This affected my renolock matchup in particular, with a 35-8 with no kezan/eater vs 5-7 with kezan/eater.

Freeze mage is in a decent spot right now, but the future looks bright. With the upcoming changes, pirate warrior looks to get a bit weaker and aggro shaman a lot (even to bad matchups), which will likely mean more midrange shaman (a good matchup for us). And hopefully the uptick in midrange shaman might encourage people to play less reno mage (a really bad matchup).

Some likely discussion points:

Novice Engineer vs Loot Hoarder

You’ll see in my list above that I’m currently running loot hoarders over novices, but I played quite a bit of both this season. Either one will do fine in the deck, but I eventually settled on loot hoarder for its ability to set up better pings/blizzards in the mid game against the aggro decks.

No Pyroblast?

This gets asked a lot whenever I post the list (I’m not really sure why. Maybe because tempo storm’s wild freeze list has a pyro in it?), but there’s no need for pyro when you can do 30+ damage with evolved kobold. There are some fringe situations in certain matchups where just having an extra 10 damage in the deck would be helpful, but it comes up so rarely and slows down the deck so much that I don’t think it’s worth it.

Pirate Warrior

Probably the number 1 reason why pretty much no one is playing this deck at higher ranks. The matchup is bad enough in standard that Laughing doesn’t even play freeze anymore, but in wild, I think the matchup is pretty close to 50/50 (my current stats are 17-13). As I said earlier, mad scientist makes a huge difference in wild, allowing you to both contest the early board and free up your early mana to play removal and draw rather than playing secrets from hand. The main win condition here is starving the warrior of cards, trying to setup a cleanish board in the late game to Alex yourself and start beating with an 8/8. Be very liberal with the burn, you almost never win this matchup by burning them out. Ice lance, in particular, should almost never used as burn, but rather to freeze a minion or face to prevent from getting popped or setting up a doomsayer.

Extra credit: Laughing’s old freeze mage guides, while outdated with regards to specific builds and matchups, still has some valuable insights into the thought process of playing Freeze Mage and is definitely recommended reading for those looking to improve their play.

You pretty much just have to try and play as fast as you can and hope to get them before they draw Reno. I keep Alex and draw in this matchup and just Alex on 9 and hope for the best. The matchup is probably the worst one for the deck after control warrior.

It's not easy, but you can do it. Here are my stats from my legend climb this season (currently sitting at L3). http://puu.sh/u3Gst/b4723511ed.png Most renolock losses are from people running kezan or eater of secrets and there are a decent number of people counter queuing control warrior into me, since the odds of facing the same people are quite high.

Reno Mages have ice block in addition to all the healing from Reno, so waiting for 30+ burst isn't an option. They also don't naturally put themselves into the low 20s through life tap, so it's hard to burst them quickly before they get a block up without Alex.